For nearly two and a half hours Monday night, the tax board and the Board of Aldermen met jointly to consider a series of scenarios to reduce costs. They considered billing by usage, cutting $9 million of needed work out of the proposal and even spreading the costs over all residents not just those hooked up to city sewers.

But in the end, the boards voted unanimously to throw the project on the ballot for voters to decide in November.

"We could have eliminated some of the work," said Carmen DiCenso, a 3rd Ward alderman. "But if a pump fails and we have to replace it as an emergency it's going to cost us more money. The youngest station we have was built in 1975."

The costs to sewer users of the referendum were calculated by Keith McLiverty, the city's treasurer.

A single-family homeowner who now pays $365.50 a year would see WPCA fees nearly double to $622.50. The owner of a two-family home would see the costs rise from $731 to $1,245.